Week 3 #7

Technology...
there are so many cool things that you can do with technology, so many ways to learn new things with technology, and most people have no idea what is available to them! Two years ago a drove from Buffalo, NY to Anchorage with my Dad in his RV, after the first day or so I always kept a pad of paper near me to jot down directions, reflections, and questions. All kinds of questions came up during a day that neither of us new the answer to, dozens of them, from what is that plant that people are growing everywhere, where did that weird name come from, to why is there a national park here and what is it for. Many times we would stop and find the answer, soybeans, Native American word, obscure battle; but other times no answer was to be found. Periodically we would stop in some small town and go to the public library to use the computers and the Internet. Dad would pay his bills, or check his stocks and I would grab my pad and pencil and try to find answers to all the questions from the last few days. We found out some really interesting information. Iowa produces the most corn in the US, I thought it was Nebraska you know cornhuskers and all. The US is one of the top producers of soybeans in the world, and they are used for all kinds of things, lubricants, food, fillers, artificial wood and those are just the things that I remember. With the help of local library databases and local librarians we all sorts of things. It was a lot of fun.

Alaskans have so many resources available to them! The state resources, municipal resources, parents and kids have access to school district resources all from the comfort of their own homes or a short trip to the local library. The majority of people in Anchorage have no idea! I talk to people all the time who have never heard of a database, or that they can use one for free. I'm not sure if there hasn't been enough publicity, or maybe people just don't care. The many questions that come through their heads are forgotten before the day is done.

I would love to see technology rekindle some curiousity! I think people are force fed technology to use in certain ways and many of them don't go beyond that, Oh just Google it, is the extent of their curiousness. A lot of times the link to the page isn't even clicked on, the answer is taken from the blurbs on the hit list! I must admit I have been lazy and done this a time or two myself. On that cross country trek with my Dad we explored not just by RV but by Internet. We stopped at places we had never heard of, we learned some hows and whys from locals that might not have given us more than the time of day, we found antique stores (a passion of my Dad's) that we would never have found on our own because we took some time to do some Internet exploring along the way. We knew local stuff, from reading local newspapers and talking to local librarians that we asked of other local residents and because we were interested and had a little background knowledge we had really interesting conversations with all kinds of people.

Technology enriched that experience for me and I wish others would find the vast number of resources available that could enrich experiences for them.

Ugh, this became more a rant about people than about technology but I'm sure most of you will understand what I mean.